Did the Puritans of the New World achieve the "shining city upon a hill" that they were looking for?

Question

Using a seventeenth century point of view, did they?

Answer 1

Well, once they killed the heathens there were those pesky witches.

If this is a homework question then your teacher needs to reconsider it because there's no right or wrong answer- by some standards yes they did and by others no they didn't.

Yes they did:

-They created a financially successful self sustaining colony with (after the early 'starving years') a higher quality of life than most had in England
-They practiced their religion free and openly (though 20 years after they came here Puritans went from a persecuted minority to the ruling class of England [where they beheaded the king])
-They forged their own identity

No they didn't:
-The colony had continual problems with Indians (who seemed to think the land was their's just because they'd been there a few thousand years)
-There was constant infighting among the different sects (Puritans v. Pilgrims)
-The colony became noted as one of the most intolerant places on Earth and lost major financial ground to New Amsterdam (NYC today) and Philadelphia in the 18th century
-The witch hysteria showed just how corrupt and intolerant and superstitious the colony had become
-By the 18th century due to major emigration and people changing faiths, Puritans were a minority once again in their own land

So, yes and no.

Answer 2

They were expecting a second Paradise, a Utopia, but they had to work a lot harder for it than they anticipated... so it's hard to say! But hard work they didn't mind much, so from a 17th Century point of view, they probably DID achieve the Shining City.

Answer 3

They just had to kill off some heathens who were there first and then it looked great to them.